I conceive that I have now shewn, beyond a doubt, that I did not, in fact, provoke the people of France to assassinate their magistrate, whether forced on them, or elected by them, in the passage which is stated to bear that construction; and that, if I subsequently advised them to subvert his government, I was authorized in those effusions of resentment by indisputable motives, both public and private. I go still further; I consider myself as having rendered a service to the public cause, by harassing and irritating certain personages to such a degree as to snatch from their souls the disclosure of their secret designs, and the avowal of their implacable hate to British freedom. Dismal is the situation of those men who make all Europe tremble, while it is not possible to exhibit to them any of the acts of their past lives, without extorting the involuntary exclamation; what then, you want to have me assassinated!* It seems that an internal voice admonishes them, that there is no act of their lives but what deserves the punishment of death. Ah! let us leave them to wallow in the kind of glory which they have created for themselves, let them grow intoxicated with the incense which is lavished on them by fear, or sold to them by baseness. As for us, let us with constancy and firm ness * On this principle Colonel Sebastiani accused general Stuart of having intended to cause his assassination by sending to the Turkish commandant at Cairo, a perfidious proclamation of the first Consul, deceiving alike Turks and Egyptians, Mahometans and Christians. ness reject all their baits; let us be vigilant in the cause of our lawful Sovereign; let us combat his inveterate enemies with every kind of arms, let. reason attack them in line, and overthrow them en masse, after the rifle-men shall by their ambiguous marches, have uncovered and turned their flanks. As for me, I devote myself to breaking. ground, to attacking the covered ways, and to preparing the general storm of that pandemonium of plunderers, where every borough, town, principality, bishoprick, dutchy or electorate, has a price set on it, a public auction for its sale, and an auctioneer, to receive the bidding: Villains, whom no faith could fix, Of crooked counsels and dark politicks. I will consecrate to it the remainder of my life; I shall die on it, if necessary; but in breathing my last, I will pour my curses on all those Qui voudront être aux méchants complaisants, A time will come when justice shall resume her reign in France, and when this new revolution takes place, happy they who have been GUILTY, under the reign of the present revolution! THEN IT WILL NOT BE IN EVERY MAN'S POWER TO CLAIM THAT DISTINCTION, Et nos olim meminisse juvabit. · APPENDIX. APPENDIX. No. I. THE DECLARATION OF THE KING. May 18th, 1803. His Majesty's earnest endeavours for the preservation of peace having failed of success, he entertains the fullest confidence that he shall receive the same support from his Parliament, and that the same zeal and spirit will be manifested by his people, which he has experienced on every occasion, when the honour of his Crown has been attacked, or the essential interests of his dominions have been endangered. During the whole course of the negotiations which led to the Preliminary and Definitive Treaties of Peace between His Majesty and the French Republic, it was His Majesty's sincere desire, not only to put an end to the hostilities which subsisted between the two countries, but to adopt such measures, and to concur in such propositions, as might most effectually contribute to consolidate the general tranquillity of Europe. The same motives by which His Majesty was actuated during the Negotiations for Peace, have since invariably governed his conduct. As soon as the Treaty of Amiens was concluded, His Majesty's Courts were open to the people of France for every purpose of legal redress; all sequestrations were taken off their property; all prohibitions on their trade which had been imposed during the war were removed, and they were placed, in every respect, on the same footing, with regard to commerce and intercourse, as the inhabitants of any other State in amity with His Majesty, with which there existed no Treaty of Commerce. To a system of conduct thus open, liberal, and friendly, the proceedings of the French Government afford the most striking contrast. The prohibitions which had been placed on the commerce of His Majesty's subjects during the war, have been enforced with increased strictness and severity; violence has been offered in several instances to their vessels and their property; and, in no case, has justice been afforded to those who may have been aggrieved in consequence of such acts, nor has any satisfactory answer been given to the repeated representations made by His His Majesty's Ministers or Ambassador at Paris, Under such circumstances, when His Majesty's subjects were not suffered to enjoy the common advantages of peace within the territories of the French Republic, and the countries dependent upon it, the French Government had recourse to the extraordinary measure of sending over to this country a number of persons for the professed purpose of residing in the most considerable seaport towns of Great-Britain and Ireland, in the character of Commercial Agents or Consuls. These persons could have no pretensions to be acknowledged in that character, as the right of being so acknowledged, as well as all the privileges attached to such a situation, could only be derived from a Commercial Treaty; and as no treaty of that description was in existence between His Majesty and the French Republic. There was consequently too much reason to suppose, that the real object of their mission was by no means of a commercial nature; and this suspicion was confirmed not only by the circumstance that some of them were military men, but by the actual discovery, that several of them were furnished with instructions to obtain the soundings of the harbours, and to procure military surveys of the places where it was intended they should reside. His Majesty felt it to be his |